Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore

Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore GCMG KStJ (26 November 1829 – 30 January 1912)^[1] was a British Liberal Party politician and colonial administrator. He had extensive contact with Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.

Gordon was born in London in 1829.^[2] He was the youngest son of George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen and his second wife, Harriet Douglas. His mother was the widow of Viscount Hamilton.^[2] Gordon was educated privately and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1849.^[3] After graduating in 1851, he worked as Assistant Private Secretary to the British Prime Minister (his father) between 1852 and 1855, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley from 1854 to 1857,^[1] before holding a number of colonial governorships:

• Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, 1861–1866, securing New Brunswick's assent to Canadian Confederation^[4]
• Governor of Trinidad, 1866–1870.
• 11th Governor of Mauritius, 21 Feb 1871 – 18 August 1874^[5]
• Governor of Fiji^[6] from 1875 to 1880
• Governor of New Zealand, 29 November 1880 – 24 June 1882
• Governor of Ceylon, 1883–1890.

He was created Baron Stanmore, of Great Stanmore, in the County of Middlesex on 21 August 1893.^[7]

In 1897 Lord Stanmore became the chairman of the Pacific Islands Company Ltd (‘PIC’), which was a company formed by John T. Arundel that was based in London with its trading activities in the Pacific that involved mining phosphate rock on Banaba (then known as Ocean Island) and Nauru.^[8] John T. Arundel and Lord Stanmore were responsible for financing the new opportunities and negotiating with the German company that controlled the licences to mine in Nauru. In 1902 the interests of PIC were merged with Jaluit Gesellschaft of Hamburg, to form the Pacific Phosphate Company, (‘PPC’) to engage in phosphate mining in Nauru and Banaba.^[9]

Gordon's ethnographic collection from Fiji, which was assembled during his Governorship, was donated to the British Museum in 1878.^[10]

Works

• William Ewart Gladstone, Baron Arthur Hamilton-Gordon Stanmore (1961). Gladstone-Gordon correspondence, 1851–1896: selections from the private correspondence of a British Prime Minister and a colonial Governor, Volume 51. American Philosophical Society. p. 116. Retrieved 2010-06-28. (Volume 51, Issue 4 of new series, American Philosophical Society Volume 51, Part 4 of Transactions Series Volume 51, Part 4 of Transactions of the American Philosophical Society new ser v. 51, no. 4)(Original from the University of California)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Arthur Hamilton-Gordon
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Lieutenant Governors of New Brunswick
Post-Confederation (1867–present) Doyle Harding L. Wilmot Tilley Chandler R. Wilmot Tilley Boyd Fraser McClelan Snowball Tweedie Wood Ganong Pugsley Todd McLean M. MacLaren Clark D. MacLaren O'Brien McNair Bird Robichaud Stanley Finn McCain Trenholme Counsell Chiasson Nicholas Roy-Vienneau Governors before Confederation (1786–1866) Carleton Smyth Douglas Campbell Harvey Colebrooke Head Manners-Sutton Hamilton-Gordon

Governors and Governors-General of New Zealand
	William Hobson* Robert FitzRoy* George Grey* Thomas Gore Browne* George Bowen* Sir James Fergusson, Bt* The Marquess of Normanby* Hercules Robinson* Arthur Hamilton-Gordon* William Jervois* The Earl of Onslow* The Earl of Glasgow* The Earl of Ranfurly* The Lord Plunket* The Lord Islington* The Earl of Liverpool* The Viscount Jellicoe Sir Charles Fergusson, Bt The Viscount Bledisloe The Viscount Galway Sir Cyril Newall The Lord Freyberg The Lord Norrie The Viscount Cobham Bernard Fergusson Arthur Porritt Denis Blundell Keith Holyoake David Beattie Paul Reeves Catherine Tizard Michael Hardie Boys Silvia Cartwright Anand Satyanand Jerry Mateparae Patsy Reddy
	* Held office of Governor of New Zealand.

Governors of Fiji
Sir Hercules Robinson Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon Sir William Des Vœux Sir Charles Mitchell Sir John Bates Thurston Sir George Thomas Michael O'Brien Sir William Allardyce Sir Henry Moore Jackson Sir Everard im Thurn Sir Charles Henry Major Sir Francis Henry May Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott Sir Cecil Hunter-Rodwell Sir Eyre Hutson Sir Murchison Fletcher Sir Cecil Barton Sir Arthur Richards Sir Harry Luke Sir Philip Euen Mitchell Sir John Rankine John Ferns Nicoll Sir Alexander Grantham Sir Brian Freeston Sir Ronald Garvey Sir Kenneth Maddocks Sir Derek Jakeway Sir Robert Sidney Foster